King of the Castle
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Paul might be the king of WWE, but his new dog is pretty certain that doesn't transfer over to the household. - One-shot.


The house was massive.

Not as massive as it seemed when he was first brought home, as a tiny, little puppy, but even as a pretty dang large puppy, the place was still huge.

There was lots of exploring to do, in the early months. He had to get accustomed to the stairs and whose bedroom was whose, that the scary basement with all the weird looking equipment his parents exercised on was only scary if you let it be scary; childish, young puppy things. As a mature, older puppy, Andre was pretty set on how the layout of the house worked.

He was actually pretty used to the basement. He liked it down there. Twice a week, at least, his mother and father would go down there to 'work out' as they put it, and he'd go lay down there to watch them. It was either that or watch his sisters sleep, which was boring. He far preferred hanging around his mother at all times anyhow.

Not that he only went down there when the two of them were around. Nah. Andre pretty much ruled the house and could go wherever he damn well pleased! So long as, you know, someone left the door open for him to be able to do so. And if they hadn't put him in his crate. Or he hadn't gone into his crate, the little door shut behind him, and he was too foolish to just push it back open, thinking wrongfully that it was locked. Or he hadn't been put outside to roam the yard for a bit when he was being too bad inside the house.

Barring all of those though, Andre was pretty much the man of the place. Even when his daddy was home (he traveled a lot), Andre pretty much felt like he out ranked him, given the fact that Steph catered far more to his needs than the big guy.

She called him the little baby. And Andre used it to his advantage. He'd sleep in bed with them whenever he wanted, could rip up things without getting spankings or scoldings (for the most part), and, now that he was finally too big to be carried by his mommy, could get her to force Daddy to carry him around when he just felt the need to be held.

So who really was king then? Huh?

Anyhow, he was spending one of his day lounging down in the basement, investigating things, being bad. The usual. The girls were home, upstairs, with their nannies and he was probably supposed to too, but he was actually kinda upset because his mother and father hadn't been home in two whole days and that was like a week to him, he felt.

While he was moping and being bad downstairs, he found those nifty, huge balls that he saw his parents work out with. His mother called them medicine balls. He could hardly fit his mouth around one, they were so big. And hard. When he chewed on it, it hurt his teeth.

Perfect. Just how he liked it.

One of the girls came to find him eventually. The littlest one. She was calling his name, from the top of the basement stairs and, when he heard it, his tail started wagging against his will, beating loudly on the floor, letting her in on just where he was.

"You're bad," she giggled when she found him, though he only left the medicine ball behind, rushing to great her. "Andre."

He was not. He didn't like that word. Steph would say it and wag her finger in his face some times. He mostly tried to avoid things that would cause her to do this, but sometimes it was unavoidable.

Like that time she found him drinking out of that huge water bowl in the bathroom that smelled a bit funny. She'd say, "No, Andre. We don't drink from the toilet. You hear me? Bad boy." And yes, he heard her, but no, he didn't really understand what the big deal was.

Why have a water dish you couldn't drink from?

His mother was so confusing.

But again, he hated that word bad and the finger wag and tried very hard to avoid things that brought those about.

It just wasn't easy.

Barking, his littlest sister giggle and leaned down to nuzzle her head against his, getting plenty of kisses in return. Andre liked giving out licks. All the girls enjoyed them and his mother most of all. His father though…

"Come on." She grabbed the back of his collar after putting away the medicine ball with some giggles, tugging the dog along. If Andre resisted, this wouldn't have worked, but he had a pretty good inkling that it was getting close to dinner time and there was nothing he enjoyed more than that. "Be a good boy."

He liked that word. Good. His mother said it when he brought the ball back when they were playing instead of taking off with it and hiding it or when he'd do very well when that woman that wanted to teach him tricks showed up. Now, the word good wasn't as great as, say, treats, but as far as words went, it was one of his favorites.

Upstairs, he found that everyone still seemed too busy for him. His littlest sister kept tugging him along though, through the house, and to the stairs that took them to the bedrooms. She couldn't hold onto him any longer as, invigorated, he rushed right up then, nearly making her fall as he broke her hold.

"Andre, wait for me!"

No way.

He knew which room was hers and, nosing into it, went to rush and jump on her bed. It took her a moment to join him and when she did, she called him bad again, but he was too busy burrowing his head under her pillows to care.

She actually hadn't meant for them to go into her bedroom, apparently. Instead, she drug him back out of the room and into the upstairs playroom that was full of all the things Andre wasn't allowed to chew on (seriously, that was one of the things that got him put outside; apparently, dolls and stuffed animals were not played with by ripping their heads off, who knew), but that was okay because she had other plans for him.

"Here, Andre. Sit."

He knew that word.

Doing so in front of the little blanket that that girl had set out, he found that he'd been injected into the torment that is a tea party.

Bleh.

He hated them.

They always ended up the same. She would try to put a frilly hat on his head, which he'd attempt to eat, and then wrap a feather boa around his neck, that he'd also wanna consume, and don't even get him started on their other party guests.

Always the same. This big teddy bear, this doll that was missing an eye (not courtesy of him, actually; it'd been missing for years before he came onto the scene), and this action figure of Daddy that would occasionally be replaced by the man himself, but was always awkward when it wasn't, because it was so small that it could actually sit in the tea cups.

And oh, the tea cups.

They were these little purple and pink plastic ones that sometimes she'd pour real juice into, but for the most part it was pretend and honestly, either way, it wouldn't matter because Andre wasn't allowed to even sniff the cups!

It was a harrowing experience, to say the least.

What Andre didn't know, of course, was that his littlest sister was only attempting to recreate the great tea parties she used to have with their old dog, Bluto, who'd past right before they adopted Andre. Bluto was so old that he would just lay there, during Vaughn's tea parties, and let her put any boa or hat she wanted on him. The only thing he wouldn't wear was the gloves, but that was okay because his claws would only rip them.

Andre was too rambunctious though, for such activities and, honestly, most their tea parties ended tragedy. For their other guests, that is, as he'd eventually try to take that other doll's eye and render her permanently blind or he'd finally get tired of that dang teddy bear and just have to rip into it.

They were probably headed in that direction, in fact, when his not so little sister showed up. She was the oldest of the girls. She and the littlest one began to argue about something, because apparently she needed to go do something, but she wanted to play tea party! And it wasn't fair!

At least that's what he was picking up.

Eventually, she left him and it sounded like she went down the stairs while Aurora only came over to him.

"You can't play in here right now, Andre." The older one was tugging on him then. "Come on."

Anything to save him from the tea party.

She took him back downstairs, where there was a lot going on. The person that made all of Daddy's carefully constructed meals (as he called them) was very busy in the kitchen while some people had shown up to visit. Andre recognized his mother's mother, Linda, but she had an even older woman with her and he was really excited to greet them! He was getting ready to rush right over when-

The older girl drug him past the living room. It took a bit of strength, but she was forcing him to go the other way.

"You have to go outside," she explained to him once they were to the backdoor, where she deposited him out there. "Just for a little bit. Until Granny and Great-Gram leave. I'll come get you."

Which sucked. It wasn't far.

If those were their grannies, they belonged to him too!

But it was fine. Outside wasn't _too_ bad. His father told him that it all belonged to him and it was his job to patrol the yard and make sure that everything was in tiptop shape. Recently, it had been so cold that they didn't make him hang out there very often, but maybe it was gonna get warm again? He wasn't sure. It was only his first year on the planet, after all, and he'd been born when it was super hot out, only to watch it get colder and colder. He'd be in quite the surprise when it started getting hotter and hotter!

He liked surprises though, so that was okay.

One of the guys that hung around sometimes and fixed stuff out there checking on all the pipes. He was alright. Andre was a bit suspicious of him the first time they met, but they were practically friends by that point.

So he took to following him around the perimeter of the house for awhile, checking things out too. The man used that word he liked so much. Good. He called him a good dog.

He wouldn't play with him though, when Andre found one of his balls. He threw it once, but when Andre came back, he was too busy to keep playing fetch and just ignored him.

Annoying.

Andre took off with the ball then, all on his own, to go chew on it as well as dig and stuff.

That's what patrolling was, right? Just running around, looking for things to get into? His father was never too clear on that.

He was still pretty busy with that when it happened! He saw his parents car, from through the big gate that surrounded the property and was so excited to see them. When the gate opened and their car came rolling down the driveway, he chased it all the way up to the garage, barking the entire time. Mommy got out and boy, she was happy to see him!

Daddy took too long to get out of the car and Andre didn't care near as much about him, so when Steph went into the house, he was quick to follow. She was calling all sorts of his favorite things. Saying what a good boy he was being and look how big he'd gotten and ooh, Andre, are your paws cold? You wanna wear your little doggy booties?

No, actually, to the last one, but if it meant more special attention from Steph, he'd be willing to put up with it.

She didn't kick him outside, like the others had, but she did make him go sit in a room all alone with his toys as she visited with her mother and grandmother, telling him that she'd be back for him very soon.

He was more inclined to believe her than he had been his not so little sister.

After what felt like a decade (but was closer to just an hour), his mother came to let him out and it was like they were seeing one another for the first time that day all over again! He immediately took to bouncing around and trying to get her to carry him by jumping on her, but Mommy only laughed and called him silly.

"Steph, you can't let him jump on you. How many times have we gone over this?"

And Daddy was in the hallway then too! Andre rushed to greet him, though it quickly got a sharp command to sit and he did it...he just was still rather wiggly during it.

"Oh, Paul, he's just happy to see us."

"I know, but I don't pay to get him trained so that you can make him into a wild animal instead. Now shake, buddy."

When Daddy bent down, he held out a hand and Andre immediately tossed a paw over it. That wasn't enough though! He tried to toss his other paw over both those when Daddy took to shaking the first one and ugh.

He loved his parents so much.

"Good boy," Paul rewarded him while his mother only giggled. As the man scratched behind his ears, he asked, "You ready for your walk?"

Was he?

Was he?

Heck yeah!

His sisters were eating dinner though and didn't come with them. Neither did his mother, but she rarely did. That was okay. Father-son bonding time was very important. When it was just the two of them, it was much easier for Andre to relax a bit, which would get him rewarded with tons of, "You're such a good boy," by his father. For some reason though, his father wouldn't refer to himself as Daddy the way that his mother referred to herself as Mommy and that was such a shame.

Such a shame.

But the walk was fun. They went down to Pop's house. Pop-pop was Linda's husband and he was very boisterous. He met him at the gate of his house and he and Daddy talked, which wasn't really a walk and Andre knew if his mother knew, she wouldn't be too happy, but he'd yet to figure out how to tell her such details. Their communication mostly lied in whines. He had a whine for water, a whine for bathroom, and a whine for snuggles.

Other than that, Steph just seemed to be pretty good at guessing his needs. Considering they were mostly just more treats and more fetch, it wasn't too hard to figure out.

Andre was a simple king.

Pop was boring that day though. All business. He seemed tired. And he couldn't bend down to pet Andre because he had these weird things under his arm. He didn't know what they were called or for, but he seemed to need them as to walk. He'd been using them for awhile. He'd hurt himself, probably.

They talked for a bit and then Daddy let them continue their walk. Andre was very interested in this other dog that he saw, down the street, but Daddy wouldn't let them go play. He was busy talking on his phone then and ugh.

He wasn't being a very good father that night.

Still, Andre was all tuckered out when he got home and ready for some water and some food, which the oldest of his sisters got for him. She was very good at caring for him. She brushed him and would clean off his paws when they got dirty (with all that weird white stuff that had been falling from the sky recently and gathering on the ground, his paws got dirty very frequently).

She was great.

But he could tell that Mommy was already upstairs, doing the bedtime routine with the other girls, so he rushed through his dinner while his not so little sister went to watch TV with Daddy. He hoped they had fun, because it would be without him. He needed to be put to bed the right way.

With a story and some snuggles.

Mommy was in the youngest one's bedroom, sitting on her bed with both the girls, reading loudly from a book. Andre took it upon himself to jump on the end of the bed, which got tons of giggles, and bite at their toes, which got a lot less.

When the story was over, Mommy tucked the littlest one in and she gave her a kiss before leading Andre and his middle sister to her bedroom.

Rushing to get on the bed in there too, Andre was rewarded for being so smart by Murphy giving him some kisses before snuggling down in the bed with him.

It was his favorite place to snooze.

"I'll see you in the morning," Mommy told his sister and gave him a head pat too.

Then it was quiet time.

He could hear other things going on in the house, as he drifted in and out of sleep. He was a bit too big to sleep in the bed with his sister for long periods of time and she was snuggled up to him real nice as she snoozed rather easily that night. Andre heard his not so little sister be put to bed as well as his parents going up and down the stairs a few times. Daddy eventually did his peak in, where he'd either just crack the door open and look in at the girls, or actually full on come in there. It was a full on come in there kinda night, apparently, as he came to snuggle Andre and Murphy under the covers better, which was nice of him. When he left though, he didn't shut the door all the way and, well, about twenty minutes later, when Andre heard a door shut in the distance, he not only knew exactly what door that was, but also exactly what was going on.

It was time to work out!

Why hadn't they informed him?

He had to wiggle his way out of Murphy's hold (he wasn't a teddy bear, after all) before he could bound off the bed and nudge the door Daddy didn't shut all the way open so he could head downstairs.

Not just down one set of stairs either. Because the door that had shut had been the basement door, Andre was certain, and heading that way, he found Mommy and Daddy down there already, changed into some different clothes, with Joe!

Andre barked at him, but in a friendly way, before going to lay down and be a good boy. This was partially because he was sleepy, but also because if he didn't Daddy would make him go back upstairs because, apparently, interrupting their work out was bad.

Once more, Andre hated being bad.

It was only when he was lying down once more, in his normal spot (which is to say, he was in the way, because his spot, regardless of the room, was always in the way) that Andre remembered that medicine ball he'd chewed up and was totally prepared to be called bad and get a finger wag and man, he was glad when they didn't even use the medicine ball that day!

Mommy just worked out and Daddy worked out and then it was time to go to bed! For real bed. Joe left and Mommy and Daddy went to shower and Andre got put out, for a bit, to go potty.

He did so and then cowered by the door, fearful of the heavy wind that had kicked up and not quite sure what it was.

Plus, it was a bit cold!

Mommy didn't make him wait long. She came and took him back to Murphy's room and, too tired to fight it, Andre passed out on the bedroom floor, staying that way for a good few hours.

The morning was busy as always and his sisters were mostly cranky. He wasn't though! They to go out into the world for the day, but if he felt sleepy at any point, he'd just go conk back out. Not them though.

Or his parents! They weren't cranky, but they were never too fun in the mornings. Mommy drank her coffee though, out on the back porch, while he did his morning business. That's what she called it.

The girls ate cereal for breakfast, which was totally crap! Because when they did that, they couldn't sneak him bacon or sausage or toast. His middle sister did get him some doggy treats though and his littlest one, when peeking through her lunch sack, found some animal crackers, which she gave him a few of.

He loved his sisters.

Even the one that didn't sneak him any food.

Mommy took them to school while he watched Daddy get ready to go down the office, he said, talking about how happy he was to be home from New Orleans. He talked to Andre, when they were the only ones in the house. When they weren't, he liked to play as if doing so was asinine and would tease Mommy when she did, but Andre took no offense.

Mainly because he didn't know this occurred.

When his mother got back, she had to rush and hurry around the place, to finish getting ready, and Daddy just tsked a lot and mocked her on how long it took her to get ready. Eventually though, they were all ready and, after some head pats and a kiss from Steph, he was all alone.

The man of the house.

Not for long, of course, as the two women that cleaned up the house came by to let him go to the bathroom and give him water. They weren't actually there just to do that, of course, but Andre didn't know this. He believed they were. There was always someone who came by around that time to do it and, even though they always had other jobs (it might be the guy who fixes stuff, the woman who cooks stuff, or even Linda sometimes), but he thought they were coming just to see him.

Andre could be quite narcissistic.

Like any good king.

The day was no fun though, until the girls and nannies came. They had to do homework, right of the bat, when they got home, but after that was always play time. And Andre had spent the day exploring the house (it was literally an every day affair, even though he knew the place like the back of his paw), so he was a bit tuckered out, but was very excited to learn it was hot enough to go play fetch outside! The girls just had to wear coats, the nanny said, and they all three came!

They played for a long time.

He loved his life.

Mommy was home early that night. And Daddy came too. It wasn't a travel day, Andre guessed. Which was great. They all took him on a walk that night, as a big family, and they didn't have to stop and talk to stupid Pop for the majority of it. The girls fought over holding his leash and Andre felt so special.

They didn't, of course, when Daddy scolded them for this, but that was alright. So long as they were the ones being bad and not him.

Afternoon walks were so much more fun. There were more people and other dogs out. Andre liked it way more than his father-son bonding thing that Daddy made him do the night before.

Back at home, he the girls all did separate things that he didn't care one bit about because his mommy was going into her office and there was no way he wasn't going to go sit under her desk and chew on his toys.

No way.

"You know we're working out tonight, right?" Daddy asked when he came in and ruined things later just by being around. Andre liked the big lug, but when he was alone with his mother, sometimes he just wanted it to stay that way.

Alone.

"Duh," Steph mocked him as she didn't look up from typing on her laptop. "And you need to read that chapter of that book with Murphy."

"Duh."

"Duh."

"Duh."

"D- You can't kiss someone in the middle of them mocking you," she grumbled as Andre only stayed under the desk and waited for the man to leave.

"I can so. Watch. Start to and I'll do it again."

Daddy was standing on front of the desk, leaning over it, and it took all that Andre had in him not to nip at the toes of the man.

Because that was worse than bad.

That was _very_ bad.

And being very bad would get him in major trouble.

Like, Daddy might yell at him bad.

He pretended like the rubber bone he was munching on was the man's feet instead.

It helped him resist the urge.

Much later that night, when, once more, Andre awoke in Murphy's bed to the sound of the basement door opening and closing, he shouldda just rolled over (not literally; he'd have crushed his sister) and gone back to sleep. Foolishly, however, he popped up to go rush down there and watch them.

Things were going good at first. He greeted Joe, got some pets from his parents, and he was totally gonna conk out, but that was okay. They liked him best that way.

Then it happened. While he was busy trying to get himself tangled up in some sort of ropes on the ground that were used for something or other, Mommy found it.

"Andre," she scolded as she went to show him the medicine ball and he only put a paw over his nose, hoping it would help him hide (it never did, but he never stopped trying). "Did you do this? Bad boy."

Ugh.

Why was it bad? It was a big toy.

Wasn't it?

They played with it.

Mommy scolded him for a good...ten seconds and it was almost too much for him. Eventually, she did finally giggle and he felt a bit better and she had to get back to her work out.

Apparently, chewing on medicine balls wasn't allowed.

Who knew?

Andre didn't wanna sleep with his middle sister that night. Nope. After the bathroom break, he followed his mother into her bedroom with her, giggling the whole time.

After his shower, Daddy was less than pleased, but only came to fall into bed with them.

"Why does he need to sleep in here?"

"I'm tired, Paul. Don't fight with me. I need my baby."

Grumbling, he gave her and Andre his back. "Maybe I needed my baby."

"Vaughn can sleep with us."

"Steph-"

"He wants me."

"You and this dog."

"I love him." She giggled as the dog continued to lick at her face. "He's my baby."

"Gross."

"You're just jealous."

"So what if I am?"

"You'll have to just get over it because I'm busy with my baby."

And she was. For a bit. Eventually, of course, she made Andre lay down and he did so, making sure he was facing his daddy so that his claws could grace the man's back. This lasted until Steph fell asleep and Paul made him go sleep on the foot of the bed, but that was okay too.

Because there was nothing better than ending a pretty great day than snuggling with your parents. Even if it was just their feet.

He had a sinking feeling that the next day would be another horrible 'leave Andre home alone day', but if he suffered through enough of those, hopefully he'd get to those precious two days when the girls didn't have to go to school.

Or maybe back to those ones like he'd just had. Where they didn't go anywhere at all! They were home all the time! Not his mother and father of course, but the girls were. Those were good times.

He really liked those times.

But he'd take what he could get, with all of them. Even with just one of them.

As hard as it was being king, it was, after all, nothing without your peasants.

* * *

 **This came about from Steph's most recent work out vids. She posted on the first that she and Paul had been gone, got back in time to visit with her mother, and then put the girls to bed. Then in the second, she showed us Andre and the medicine ball he'd chewed up. For some reason, that really made me wanna right about him.**


End file.
